The Great Intermission: A SOAP Journal Based on Acts 1

S = Acts 1:4-8

And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 

O = As Christians we are familiar with the Great Commission where we are commanded to preach the gospel to the whole world (Matthew 28:19-20) but before the disciples could obey that command they had to obey the lesser-known command to wait in Jerusalem…which I call the Great Intermission (between the departure of Jesus and the coming of the Holy Spirit in power). In Jesus' last conversation with his disciples before he ascended into heaven, he told his disciples that they were to wait for “the baptism with the Holy Spirit” (v.5) Jesus was not about to send them out into the world without the power they needed to fulfill their commission. They then had a charts-and-graphs kind of question about the prophesied restoration of Israel, but Jesus said that knowledge was “none of their business.” What they would get to experience was the power and presence of the Holy Spirit and the privilege of witnessing to people around the world about the resurrection of Christ. Note: Baptism (Greek word baptizo) carries the meanings of 1) Complete immersion in X, and 2) Total identification with X. This immersion in, and identification with, the Holy Spirit becomes a defining moment for us like Israel’s passage through the Red Sea.

A = Before I can effectively fulfill my commission to be a witness for Jesus Christ, I have to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. The task is too large, the distance too far, the need too great, the opposition too vehement, the labor too long, and the cost too high for my own limited resources. Moses once told God that he wouldn’t go into the Promised Land if the Lord himself didn’t go with them (Ex. 33:12-16). This passage in Acts 1, is the Lord making sure that his followers had the presence of God with them and in them before they began the journey appointed for them. This is a lesson I need to apply to my own life as well.

P = O Lord, like Moses, I don’t want to go anywhere without you. Certainly, I can’t go where you ask, in the way you ask, without the power of the Holy Spirit upon me. So I thank you for sending your promised Spirit to me and I ask you to fill me afresh each and every day. Holy Spirit I grant you full access to every area of my life. Gift me with what I need to love others well. Please produce visible evidence (fruit—Gal. 5:22-23) of your presence in my life that I might love and glorify you this week.   Amen.